Howard c



Sept. 1, 1925.

H. C. FORBES CLIP Filed July 26. 1917 11' FIG.9 go 3' /4/2 INVENTOR F' -IO 7 MM @MM a 5 5 E B R O F. Pu D m W H.

ATTORNEYS.

Patented Sept. 1, 1925.

HOWARD C. FORBES, OF CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS.

CLIP.

Application filed July 26, 1917.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, Hows-am C. Forums, a citizen of the United States, residing at Cambridge, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented new and useful Improvements in Clips. of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to in'iprovements for clips for fastening papers and the like. More particularly it relates to spring wire devices for binding together sheets, pamphlets or other loose leaves. Although there is a great commercial demand, and enormous daily consumption, of devices of this class, and although numerous varieties of them have been proposed, all hitherto known, so far as I am aware, fail to give satisfactory service except in limited ways. Among the defects of various existing devices, which the present invention seeks to remedy, are failure to hold sheets securely; extension too far over the page; projection outward from the edge of the binding; and possession of only such gripping power as results from lateral displacement of spring jaws to a dis tance equal to the thickness of the matter to be bound.

Among the advantages combined in the invention are that, when in use, the device does not project out from the edge of the bound packet; does not project over the bound leaves beyond the ordinary width of margin; terminates there in a. straight line parallel with the ed e of the packet, instead of in a projecting point or points, applies its gripping power along this line, at a safe distance from the margin, so that the leaves turn about it as about a hinge, and so that the opening of the leaf does not exert a leverage to open or release the fastening; holds with a grip between parallel jaws, as contrasted with the grip between mere crossed wires at present commonly used; operates with multiple intensity of pressure as compared with the ordinary grip result ing from such mere displacement of two clamping wires as is occasioned by the insertion between them of the package that is to be bound; is capable of relatively wide opening and binding; is opened widely without serious effortof the user and without destruction of its own elasticity: does not lose its efficiency of grip owing to thick ness of package, within wide limits, and has in its jaws a degree of independent gripping power additional to that derived from Serial No. 182,866.

the torsion of the main spring at the edge of the package. Withal, it is also among the ideals attained by the invention that it makes a spring clip at low expense for material and labor and with few operations in the manufacture. It is the object of the invention to provide a device having the foregoing and the other advantages that characterize the fastener hereinafter described. In the accompanying drawings which illustrate one embodiment of the invention,

Figures 1, 2 and 3 show an embodiment of the invention in which Figure 2 may be considered as a plan, with the device lying on a table, Figure 1 a view when the device has been rotated 90 so that its edge which is upmost in Figure 2, has come in view, and Figure 3 a view when the device has been rotated 90 from Figure 2 so that the edge which is lowest in Figure 2 has come into view.

Figures 4, 5, 6 and 7 illustrate successive positions of the device in applying it to a package of papers. when in use;

Figure 8 is an edge view of Figure 7; and

Figures 9 and 10 illustrate modifications.

As shown in the drawings the device consists of a single piece of wire, which should be spring wire and which is formed in the general shape of a trapezoid having oblique sides equal. The wire has five portions, marked respectively 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14, separated by the four angles of the trapezoid. However, the device is not necessarily of this specific shape. The portions 10 and l t are parallel and constitute what are here called the jaws of the fastener. The portion 12 which is approximately parallel to them and which as seen in F igure. 2 and Figures &-7 appears to be perfectly parallel, is the shorter of the parallel sides of the trapezoid and constitutes a torsion spring, one end of which is connected with jaw 10 by arm 11 which is one of the oblique sides, and the other end of which is connected with the other jaw by the other oblique side of the trapezoid. In the preferred form of the invention the jaws 10 and 1 stand at a little distance apart from each other when at rest, as clearly seen in Figure 1. Unlike the previously known and ordinary fasteners, in which the papers that are to be bound come under compression as they are inserted between the jaws by the pressure resulting from the spreading of the jaws, the jaws here are not much displaced by introduction them, and are made of wire of an inch in diameter, the insertion between them of a package of sheets ftof an inch thick would spread them apart only of an inch. This would be the positions of Figures at and 5,'and the torsion set up in the spring piece 12 would be comparable to that obtained by mere spreading of wires as has been customary heretofore. But in the positions of Figures 6, T and 8, the clamping side I) of jaw 10 is distani trom its original posit-ion as much as the total of the thickness of package, plus the thickness of the jaw 1st, plus the space which originally intervened between that jaw and jaw 10, plus the thickness of jaw 10. In the example taken for illustration this totals of an inch. The torsion of spring 12 is consequently made greater by this multiple displacement than by merely pushing the papers between the two jaws, and in the direction opposite to that in which it was when the papers were merely pushed between the two jaws. The manoeuvre of thus transferring the jaw 10 from one side to the other of jaw 1a is easily executed. The springiness of each of the jaws and of their connecting arms 11. and 13 allow them to yield, for one to pass the other. When the corner portion between jaw 10 and arm 11 is transferred to the other side of jaw 14, by the manipulated rotation about the jaws as above mentioned, it is accomplished by displacing the whole arm 11 from one side of the plane of arms 13, 1 l to the other side of their plane; and this means that the action is accompanied by torsion of the arm 13, for the portion 12 at one end of portion 13 twists the portion 13 whose other end is held at its corner with the jaw 14 on the back side of the package. The jaw 10 having been originally in av certain plane with arm 11 tends to remain in a plane extending in the same angular direction therefrom; and its tip, therefore, tends to remain on the side of jaw 14 on which said tip originally was, even after the arm 11 has been transferred, because the movement of the arm 11 has been a sort of rotation about the end of arm 13 where it is joined to the back 12. However, the physical substance of the package thrusts the tip of this jaw 10 as far to the second side of jaw 14 as its corner next to arm 11 is thrust, assuming that the package has parallel sides. This is a further distortion. improving the grip on the package, so that the jaw 10 presses throughout the whole of its length. However far the corner between 12 and 11, which is one end of the jaw shall be displaced, the other end of the jaw tends not to be dis placed so much, and therefore resists its displacement with a constant pressure along its whole length, and this appears to be occasioned mainly by the torsion of the portion 11. The skewed arrangement of the back causes the parts 11 and 10 to lie Hat on one side of the package, and the arm and jaw 13 and 1=l to lie tlat on the other side of the package. Experience shows that the loose leaves of the package thus bound together are held with a firm grip, and that this grip is applied along the entire length of the jaws l0 and 14. As these jaws are parallel to the margin of the package, and as they are at the extreme distance to which the device reaches from the margin, the leaves of the package may be turned up around the jaw 10 as around a. hinge, without exerting any leverage tending to loosen the grip of the jaws upon the package.

The several ditierent turning movements described and illustrated can in practice be accomplished with a. very quick composite motion which is easily learned. The turning that occurs between Figures 5 and 6, and that which occurs between Figures 6 and 7 can be executed during the sliding-on movement which occurs between Figures 4 and 5. As the binding efiect is applied at the jaws, rather than at the edge of the package, the device can be used for binding together sheets of incompressible material, or of stiff material. The insertion of a package of any thickness is relatively easy because of the initial set of the jaws, with a space between them. This space may be designed of as small a minimum as is desired, depending upon the duty to be served, and many other variations may be made from the specific form of the device illustrated, as for example, by varying the relative length of the spring back, to weaken or strengthen the torsion effect, or varying its angle, to adapt the fastener to hold securely packages of considerable thickness, across the back of which package the spring back is to run obliquely from the plane of one side or even beyond that plane, to the plane of the other side, or even beyond it, without detracting from the application of the binding pressure at whatever distance the jaws are from the back.

In designing fasteners according to the invention, it is not necessary to adhere to the four-sided structure illustrated, although that has many advantages. A fastoner with a larger number of sides will ordinarily be divided into the four parts herein described, in av virtual or functional sense, however great the number.

I claim as my invention:

1. A package comprising the combination of a stack of separate elements with a con tinuous wire clip binding them frictionally together, said clip having two parallel jaws extending parallel to the adjacent edge of the package around which the portion opposite ends 0'5 :1 toibaim'mi malt mp1'i:- ing the upplldatmn of the clip to the package with the aws extenchng 12, Yard perthey tend to occupy, whereby hinting is produced; and the clip being turned so as to prcvent upsetting; {1-0111 its position 01? Unstable equiiibq'ium and. 5 prevented from rotating :nmmd said jaws W pm'suant '0 said tcndmc v by the arrange-- ment of H10 (3131) \ViHl the sides; adjacent to said jaws; on opposite sides; oi? the package.

Th0 method of binding; a package m sheets with a wire frictional clip having two pamilci jams wnneuted by arms to an (1 on 0 Elihu to the edge thereof side thereo to a port-i011 of 1'):1rn.ll9 lerewlth 0n the same slde, thereby Sm t exceeding; the zms 21ml 31mins: the back under torsion; and (hen romtlng the c111) ai'om' 90 zurmmd an nus pel'pendlculzn' to z The plane thereof, Uhersby injecting the. marginal portion of the package 'rjxei ween said arms whereby it prevents their reverse rotation about the mentioned axis and maintains the PIPSEEIU'G between the jaws in :1 line parallel to the margin.

ff-figned by me at Boston, 31 12155 this fifth, day of June 191?.

HOE VAR D C. FUR-BEE. 

